LeVar Burton Learns He's Part-White with Confederate Ancestor

LeVar Burton made a shocking discovery about his bloodline here in America -- namely, that he's actually part-white ... and that one of his ancestors was part of the Confederacy.

The 'Reading Rainbow' vet was featured in a recent episode of PBS's 'Finding Your Roots' -- where host Henry Louis Gates Jr. laid out LeVar's family tree dating back centuries ... and pinpointing a white dude from back in the 1800s as his great-great-grandfather.

Long story short, LB's great-grandma on his mom's side -- a woman named Mary Sills -- had listed her dad as being a Black man named Louis Sills ... but DNA tests show that isn't so.

Instead, the data shows her biological father was a Caucasian farmer from the South named James Henry Dixon -- who had actually fathered children with an unnamed Black woman who was born into slavery. Even more surprising ... Dixon had served in the Confederate Army as a teen during the Civil War, so technically -- he was a defender of slavery at that time.

In response to this news, LeVar said he had conflicting feelings ... explaining, "There’s some conflict roiling inside of me right now. But oddly enough, I feel a pathway opening up."

He added, "Knowing what I know about the history of this nation, I’ve wanted, especially in this current time frame, I believe that as Americans we need to have this conversation about who we are and how we got here."